The Chart shows that HKers pay 17 times their household income to buy a home. Singaporeans just pay 5 times. Our median household income is higher and the median home price is lower in SG than in HK.

So that may be a factor.
My colleague also suggested Taiwanese were not crazy about owning cars also because their public transport system is extensive and convenient.

I don't disagree that it may be true and certainly as a tourist to these two places, we might get the impression that the public transport system is extensive and convenient.

Just as a tourist in Singapore might have the same impression - Orchard, City Hall, Gardens by the Bay, Botanic Gardens, Newton Circle, Bugis, are all easily accessible by MRT.

But if you live in Sunset Way, or Bukit Panjang, or West Coast, or Marine Parade, you might not have the same opinion.

Similarly, I am sure there are parts of HK that may not be as well served as the touristy part of HK. But as tourists, we have no reason to go to those places.

I asked him if, in his personal opinion, HK's MTR were better than SG's MRT. His candid assessment was that the two systems were probably about the same. If HK's were better, it was not so much better. If SG's were better, it was also not that much better.

Comparable.

I did not ask him if he thought the fares were cheaper.

I don't remember how much it costs when I was there a few years ago, but I think it was also "comparable". It may have been cheaper then, or it may be cheaper now, but considering the lower median income of HK, a lower fare would be in line with their costs of transport as a percentage of median income.

Considering that HK's $50k median salary is about 62% of SG's $80k, their MTR fares should be about 60% of SG.

To be fair and comparable.

But how much is the cost of a car in HK?

Well, HK doesn't have a COE system, so offhand, I would say that a car would be at least cheaper by the COE - about $60k less. I'm not sure what their taxes are, but the tax on cars double their price before COE in SG.

A Volkswagen Golf would costs HK$240k (SGD41k) in HK, but costs over HK$812k (SGD138k) in Singapore.

So yes, cars are generally cheaper in HK, but HKers are not as crazy about owning cars and are more likely to take public transport. From wikipedia:

In terms of private car ownership, the number of cars per capita is half that of Singapore and one-third that of Taiwan. Private cars are most popular in newly developed areas such as Lantau and areas near the boundary with mainland China, as there are fewer public transportation options, and more parking spaces compared to other areas of Hong Kong.

So while cars are cheaper to own in HK, they are a hassle to use in the older part of HK where there fewer parking spaces but there are better public transport.

So my colleague is probably right.

But there are also other factors like poorer facilities (like parking) which make car ownership & usage more problematic.

In SG, attempts to cut down on parking in the CBD has been poorly received. And it will take a long while to establish. Newer developments would be subject to the new requirements (fewer parking spaces), but older developments would be providing adequate if not excessive parking spaces.

So the "problem" is, it is still convenient to own and use cars in SG.

And convenience makes hypocrites of us all (John Naughton). Or at least makes us care less for the environment.

But in Singapore, it sometimes seem like the environment doesn't care much for us. It's hot and humid throughout the year, with period of hot, humid and wet sprinkled liberally.

In such a place as this, even a 50m walk could coat some of us in a thin patina of sweat. So if the train station or the bus stop isn't literally at the doorstep, if we have to walk more than 3 minutes in the blazing sun or through humidity thick as hae kor (molasses are so Ang Mo!), we are going to yearn for the day we can own a car and leave the heat and humidity behind.

In HK there is summer which may be as hot as Singapore. But that lasts about 3 months, and the rest of the year, it is pleasantly cool with occasional bouts of cold. In such an environment, a 50m or even a 400m walk is invigorating. In Singapore, it would be exhausting. Heat exhausting.

In Tokyo, Sapporo and I guess many other Japanese cities, the train stations are linked underground and you can walk underground from one station to another (maybe not all the stations, but the major ones for sure). I've walk these concourses parallel to the tracks and found the walk bracing and invigorating. The air is naturally cool. Cold even depending on the time of the year.

To do the same in Singapore, would require expenditure for air-conditioning the pedestrian tunnels. Who will pay for that?

To be sure, there are some similar linkages. Orchard station is almost linked to Somerset via underground malls (you have to come up at Orchard Link). And you can walk from City Hall station to Esplanade Station completely underground, if I recall and if they haven't changed the route. The shops/underground mall help pay for the air-conditioning.

Why we resist the ideologues

There are... liberal democracies where you can have an "Amos Yee" type freedom.

There are also very sad places where there is little freedom or security, and life is very hard.

And there are a few places where there is quite a lot of chaos and life is uncertain.

Then there are very few places where you can be reasonably civilised and have sufficient security and responsible freedom to have a good life.

Singapore is one such Oasis of sensibleness... we are an Oasis of order, competence, efficiency, and reasonableness in an otherwise chaotic unreasonable, incompetent WORLD. Not just the region.

If Singapore becomes a copy of a Western Liberal Democracy with all the inherent inefficiencies, silliness, drama, and chaos, it would be a very sad thing...

If Singapore breaks down and devolves into a corrupt, ineffective, unfocused, shambling chaotic third world country, it would also be a very sad thing.

There is only one place where you can find Singapore's straightforwardness, integrity, efficiency, competence, order... And that is here, in Singapore.

If we lose this, whether because we lean to much to the left, or whether we let ourselves sink into mediocrity through complacency or a sense of destiny, or divine right, it will be gone.

...so that is why we resist the ideologues.

Trees

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”

Reminder

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” - Ernest Hemingway

The Tao of Government

"Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthen their bones."

"He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge, and without desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them from presuming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from action, good order is universal."